The present invention relates to a remote monitoring control technique for autonomous mobile objects.
In recent years, automated driving techniques have been developed to provide inexpensive and safe moving means. In order to realize completely automated driverless driving, it is necessary to cope with imperfection in recognition, determination, and control. In order to put imperfect autonomous vehicles into practical use (launching) at an early stage, a method of guaranteeing safety by monitoring and controlling automated driving vehicles from a remote center has been considered. For example, a use case in which, in order to determine whether determination and control of automated driving is appropriate in a place where it is difficult to make determination for automated driving such as near intersections, an autonomous vehicle transmits surrounding images acquired by the autonomous vehicle to a remote center, and a monitoring controlling person who performs monitoring in the remote center performs emergency stop control when the autonomous vehicle makes inappropriate determination can be considered. Another use case in which, when automated driving cannot be continued and automated driving is disabled in a situation different from a normal situation (for example, when a road construction is being performed), an autonomous vehicle transmits surrounding images acquired by the autonomous vehicle to a remote center, and a monitoring controlling person in the remote center performs remote-controlled driving can be considered. When such remote monitoring and remote-controlled driving is performed, an autonomous vehicle and a monitoring control center may communicate using a wireless network such as a cellular phone network. It is necessary to secure travelling safety even when communication quality varies due to fluctuation of a propagation state of a wireless network.
Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2014-071777 discloses an example of a method of transmitting images to a remote center when remote-controlled driving is performed. Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2008-090576 discloses an example of a method of improving stability of movement of an autonomous mobile object.